Latest news with #JamesBorow
Business Wire
14-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Comcast's Universal Ads Launches $5 Million Fund to Help E-Commerce Merchants Grow Their Businesses with TV Advertising
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today Universal Ads, which enables brands of any size to seamlessly create, buy, and measure ads across premium video, announced the Incrementality Fund— a new $5 million fund that provides resources to help e-commerce businesses drive incremental sales through TV advertising. For qualified merchants, the fund may provide up to $50,000 in ad credits and services, including help with ad creative production and incrementality measurement solutions. At launch, the Incrementality Fund is only available to Shopify Plus merchants but will expand to other businesses over time. 'We know that TV advertising not only offers brands the scale they're used to with social ads, but it can drive tangible results,' said James Borow, Vice President of Product and Engineering at Universal Ads. 'With Universal Ads' new Incrementality Fund, we want to show brands new to this space that TV ads work—and that the last dollar spent on social performs better when it's supported by the first dollar spent on TV.' Launched in January, Universal Ads is a self-service premium video advertising platform built to be as simple and performant as social media advertising. By breaking down barriers to TV advertising, including creative and cost, Universal Ads is opening up this valuable medium to digitally native, direct-to-consumer, and growth-stage brands who previously had no easy point of entry. 'Shopify Plus merchants are some of the most sophisticated marketers on the planet, but advertising on TV has always been overwhelming to most of them,' said Maurice Rahmey, CEO of Disruptive Digital. 'With the Incrementality Fund, Universal Ads is making getting started with TV advertising as easy as social and helping to demonstrate the sales lift that TV can bring to them.' With Universal Ads, brands can reach qualified audiences alongside premium content from more than 15 major publishers including A+E, AMC Networks, DIRECTV, Estrella MediaCo, Fox Corporation, Fuse Media, LG Ad Solutions, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, Scripps, Spectrum Reach, TelevisaUnivision, Vizio, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Xumo, with more to come. The Incrementality Fund is the latest initiative from Universal Ads. Earlier this year, Universal Ads partnered with Ramp, a financial operations platform designed to save businesses time and money, to offer TV advertising access to Ramp's 30,000+ customers through the Universal Ads platform. In addition, to demonstrate the ability of TV to deliver on a variety of business goals, Universal Ads has partnered with Measured, a pioneer and leader in incrementality-based measurement and optimization. And, more strategic partnerships are on the horizon as Universal Ads works to open premium video advertising to more advertisers and opportunities. For more information on the Incrementality Fund, please visit About Universal Ads Universal Ads enables any brand, of any size, to seamlessly make and buy commercials across premium video reaching new qualified audiences at scale. Universal Ads combines premium and brand-safe video content directly from the most influential media companies with the ease and familiarity of social ad buying. It is your one-stop shop for high-quality video ads delivering unmatched scale. Universal Ads is a part of the Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology company that connects people to moments and experiences that matter.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Inside Universal Ads' plan to reach the next 100K buyers of TV ads
This story was originally published on Marketing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Marketing Dive newsletter. Over the next few weeks, marketers will learn what's coming down the pike in video advertising at both the Interactive Advertising Bureau's digitally focused NewFronts, taking place May 5-8, and at spring upfront presentations. While historically a time for major brands and agencies to cut deals, this year's ad-buying bonanza features a new platform aimed, not at existing spenders on national and local TV, but the channel's next 100,000 buyers: an e-commerce-heavy field that hasn't yet made the leap to the home's biggest screen. The platform, called Universal Ads, was announced ahead of the Consumer Electronic Show in January as part of Comcast's efforts to create a one-stop TV advertising platform that simplifies premium video buying. Since launch, Universal Ads has added publisher and technology partners to improve its offering to the small- and medium-sized businesses that have mostly bought social video but are looking to take the next step in advertising. 'We want to replicate the way you buy YouTube for premium TV,' said James Grant, general manager of Universal Ads. Bringing the ease of online ad buying to TV requires both developing new tools and providing access to premium video as a category, rather than a fragmented publisher-by-publisher approach. To address the former factor, Universal Ads hired talent from the walled garden world to create solutions that resemble what advertisers are used to in the digital and social realms. For the latter, Universal Ads relies on FreeWheel, the connected TV ad server that has already been adopted by major players in video and standardizes how Universal Ads defines and targets audiences. Among Universal Ads' digital-first team is James Borow, an architect of Snapchat's ad manager who emphasized how critical FreeWheel is to realizing Comcast's goal to modernize TV transactions. 'When he was familiarizing himself with FreeWheel, [Borow said], 'You guys have done the hard part — the ad server exists,'' Grant recalled. Growing partnerships Initially launched with partners including A+E, AMC Networks, DirecTV, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Roku, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery and Xumo, Universal Ads last week added Estrella MediaCo, Fuse Media, LG Ad Solutions, Scripps, Spectrum Reach and Vizio to its publisher slate.
